Artwork That Helps Frame History: Toward a Visual Historical and Sociological Analysis of Works Created by Prisoners from the Terezin Ghetto

Abstract

ABSTRACT:This article uses qualitative content analysis, historical archival data, and interviews with Holocaust survivors to examine artwork created during the Third Reich. It argues that these works are visual narratives that hold important empirical data about social conditions and structures during the Third Reich. These narratives, whether developed in prisons, camps, or ghettos, or in the aftermath of National Socialism, are key to understanding the victims' perspectives. Many works disclose intimate aspects of daily life that only victims saw and experienced. Thus, this artwork is an extremely valuable source for understanding prisoners' lives during the Third Reich. The article focuses on four examples: Karl Schwesig's prewar experiences illustrated in a series of prints that tell about his torture and the torture of other German Communists in a Düsseldorf jail; Malvina Schalekova's 1942–1944 drawings and paintings that expose daily life in the Terezin Ghetto; Fredrick Terna's postwar recollections about the camp at Dachau near the end of World War II; and Yehuda Bacon's 1945 retrospective of Auschwitz.